The Main South Woodsman is an unidentified serial killer who murdered between three and five prostitutes in Worcester, Massachusetts from to His nickname derives from the Main South neighborhood, where he picked up most of his victims. The prime suspect in the murders, Alex Scesny, was identified in , due to the fact he had a history of sexual abuse and was suspected in the murder of a sex worker. Although convicted of the aforementioned offenses, he has never been charged in the Main South Woodsman cases, all of which remain unsolved.
All of the Woodsman's known victims were Hispanic girls and women with slim builds, short statures, dark hair color and aged between 29 and 42 at the time of their deaths. In order to solve the case, the FBI formed a task force, and with the help from profilers based in New Jersey , they made a psychological profile of the suspect.
Scesny, a resident of Berlin who had recently been charged with the rape of a female friend in West Boylston and the cold case murder of year-old prostitute Theresa K. Stone, who had been beaten and strangled to death in Fitchburg in Since , Scesny displayed aggressive behavior towards women and had been arrested on several occasions for assault and rape. However, some of the charges were later dropped after the victims failed to appear in court, and the rest were reduced, due to which he received a relatively lenient sentence.
In , Scesny was indicted for the rape of a girl in Harwich , whom he had attempted to strangle with a necktie. In addition, it was found that Scesny's family owned a farm in Marlborough, which was coincidentally near the school where the remains of Rudy, Montalvo and Torres were found. Scesny himself lived in the city at the time, and was reportedly well acquainted with the area. When interrogated about the Woodsman murders, Scesny categorically refused to cooperate and denied guilt.
He attempted to have his conviction overturned in , but did not succeed. As of August , Scesny has not been charged with any of the other murders, although he remains a suspect. Currently, both the confirmed and suspected murders all remain unsolved.
